Political Dig

Trump Just Got Slapped With Another Lawsuit

Since becoming president, Donald Trump has been sued more than 60 times — far more than any other administration in history at this juncture. But the legal challenges to his erratic administration are just getting started. An environmental group on Thursday sued Trump over the repeal of a U.S. rule intended to protect wildlife.

In February, the Republican-controlled Congress used the Congressional Review Act, or CRA, to dismantle a rule that the administration of former Democratic President Barack Obama finalized in August to limit hunting endangered species on federal lands in Alaska.

The rule had exempted wolves and bears from Alaska’s plans to control predators, which included killing wolves and their pups in their dens and shooting bears from planes.

The CRA only requires simple majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate and the president’s signature to wipe newly minted regulations off the books.

In the federal court lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity said the CRA violated the U.S. Constitution because it barred regulators in the future from enacting “substantially similar” rules to the ones repealed.

“The Congressional Review Act throws the balance of power out of whack and opens the door for politicians in Congress to meddle in decisions that ought to be made by experts at federal agencies,” said Collette Adkins, a biologist and attorney at the center, according to Reuters.

“By law the Fish and Wildlife Service must protect biological diversity on Alaskan wildlife refuges. But the act makes it more difficult for agency officials to carry out their legal duty,” she said in a statement.